Reader's Place: September 1, 2023
As many of us head back to school, here are some fiction and non-fiction titles dealing with life on or about campus, and the life of learning.
The unfortunates: a novel , by JK Chukwu, 2023. Library copy
Sahara, a queer, half-Nigerian college sophomore who feels like an all-around failure, finds hope, answers, and unexpected redemption when she sets out to find the truth about The Unfortunates--the unlucky subset of black undergrads who have been mysteriously disappearing. Over the course of her wild sophomore year, and supported by her eccentric community of BIPOC women, Sahara will eventually find hope, answers, and an unexpected redemption.
Acting class, by Nick Drnaso, 2022. Library copy
Ten strangers are brought together under the tutelage of John Smith, a mysterious and morally questionable leader. The group of social misfits and restless searchers have one thing in common: they are out of step with their surroundings and desperate for change. With thrumming unease, the class sinks deeper into their lessons as the process demands increasing devotion. When the line between real life and imagination begins to blur, the group's deepest fears and desires are laid bare.
The code breaker: Jennifer Doudna, gene editing, and the future of the human race , by Walter Isaacson, 2021. Library copy
Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, Doudna and her collaborators turned their curiosity into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. After helping to discover CRISPR, Doudna became a leader in wrestling with these moral issues and, with her collaborator Emmanuelle Charpentier, won the Nobel Prize in 2020.
The bones of the story: A novel, by Carol Goodman, 2023. Library copy
It's been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a student and the distinguished creative writing professor who died while searching for her. Now the college is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims. But as a winter storm descends, people begin to depart, leaving a group of alumni. Recriminations and old rivalries flare as they recall the writing projects they shared as classmates, including chilling horror stories they each wrote about their greatest fears. When an alumna dies in a way shockingly similar to the story she wrote and then another succumbs to a similar fate, they realize someone has decided at long last to avenge the crimes of the past.
The education of Nevada Duncan, by Carl Weber with C.N. Phillips, 2021. Library copy
Heir to the Duncan and Zuniga crime family fortunes, Nevada Duncan must attend the world's most elite school for the children of underworld figures where he learns the importance of friendship as an enemy who wants what Nevada has lurks in the shadows.
An unexpected distraction, by Catherine Bybee, 2021. Library copy
Jacqueline 'Jax' Simon is a skilled operative with MacBain Security and Solutions. She's determined to learn why her parents sent her to Richter, the German military school that made her a fighter. Andrew Craig collects Jax at Heathrow Airport as a favor. Together, they infiltrate Richter to discover if it has returned to its covert purpose: training children to be spies and assassins and blackmailing parents to look the other way. As the attraction between the two intensifies, so do the secrets exploding all around them.
Compiled by Ina Rimpau